Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, Archbishop of Guadalajara, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, lamented the continuous cases of disappearances and findings of human remains, and pointed out that “I have the impression that in many ways the authorities are exceeded, sadly, it must be said.”
In news conference On Sunday, September 21, the purple referred to To the recent finding of at least 261 bags with human remains in the area of the needles, Zapopan, in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara.
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Cardinal Robles Ortega, who in the past has strongly criticized the policy of the previous government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador of “Non -Shots” to combat organized crime, said that “we have already exhausted, so to speak, all the expressions of astonishment, of sorrow, of concern about this issue of the disappeared.”
However, he stressed that “we must not stop asking the authorities to fulfill their mission in terms of prevention and, in terms of consummate facts, to expedite the search and identification to give comfort to the families that have disappeared.”
The six -year period of López Obrador, founder of the Morena Party that ruled Mexico between 2018 and 2024, is considered the most violent in modern history of Mexico, recording A total of 199,970.
His successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, also from Morena, assumed power on October 1, 2024. Although there is a downward trend in homicide figures, the report of the report Mexico Peace Index 2025 He warns that “in recent years, a growing number of people has disappeared in Mexico, with a high concern that this is increasingly due to disappearances perpetrated by criminal organizations.”
“In the last two decades, Jalisco has registered both the largest number of missing persons and the largest number of bodies exhumed with clandestine graves,” adds the report prepared by the Institute for the Economy and Peace.
According to Figures from the Ministry of the Interior of Mexicofrom 1952 to date 133,593 people are missing and not located in the country.
The importance of family and society in the fight against violence
Cardinal Robles Ortega also highlighted in the press conference that “all as a society must be occupied by preventing this type of actions.”
The purple stressed the role of the family, especially “parents in relation to their children: see in what activities they walk, with whom they get together, attend them, listen to them.”
From the field of faith, he stressed that it must always resort to “prayer for peace, because violence ceases, for respect for life, for the dignity and freedom of people.”
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.